


There Was Once A Little Girl

by omfgheatherrr



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Shameless Smut, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-04
Updated: 2016-02-13
Packaged: 2018-05-18 03:50:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5897083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/omfgheatherrr/pseuds/omfgheatherrr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Kylo Ren's defeat on Starkiller Base, Supreme Leader Snoke summons his apprentice back to the Unknown Regions to further his training. Ordered by Snoke to submit to the uncouth methods of a mysterious woman Snoke has been keeping secret, Kylo learns his journey to the Dark Side is not as clear-cut as he would like it to be.</p>
<p>Set just after TFA.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! I have not written anything in quite a while, but I have this entire story outlined, so come along on a journey with me! Constructive criticism always appreciated where it is needed. 
> 
> Eventual mild torture and lots of shameless smut to come. Heh, to come.
> 
> I am Adam Driver/Kylo Ren trash, join me on [tumblr](http://omfgheatherrr.tumblr.com)!

                The frigid air filtering through the _Finalizer_ ’s grey iron hallways did nothing to cool Kylo Ren’s seething temper as he marched resolutely towards the hologram comm room. Officers, enlisted personnel, and Stormtroopers alike stepped tactfully out of his way as if they could feel the rage venting from underneath his black cloak. The leather of Ren’s gloved hands crunched in protest as his fists clenched tightly by his sides. He _wished_ someone would step in his way so he would have a reasonable excuse to slam one of them against the metal wall. Under his mask, his teeth were grinding in restraint of following through with the temptation.

                How could he have found himself in this position? How could that… That _little girl_ get the upper hand? He was Master of the Knights of Ren, progeny of Lord Vader himself. There was no more powerful being on the entire Star Destroyer—the entire star system they were sheltering in—maybe no one more powerful in the entire _galaxy_. And yet somehow, by some miniscule chance, he now found himself with a permanent reminder of the day he had been bested by an insignificant scavenger. The scar that cut a swath across the bridge of his nose tingled at the recollection of the fresh memory.

                The worst part was that she had refused his offer to help her. For one fleeting instant, Ren had thought he had found a kindred spirit in the girl—he had never met someone who had anywhere near as much potential as himself. And she shot him down without a second thought, without even _considering_ what would be possible if the two of them joined forces. It was a dangerous weakness on his part, he decided. He was foolish to think he would ever be able to trust or rely on anyone but himself to accomplish his mission and arrive at his true, powerful potential.

                Ren turned a corner of the hall sharply on his heels and slammed his fist into the adjacent wall, leaving a sizeable crater.

                “Calm yourself, Master Ren,” came the patronizing voice of General Hux, who had been trailing Ren since he left his quarters. “It would not be prudent to act like a petulant child in front of the Supreme Leader.”

                Ren considered turning around and choking the man with his bare hands. He instead chose to savor the mental image of the action and ignore the general’s quip. He was almost to Snoke’s comm room, anyway, and it was never a wise decision to delay a summons by the Supreme Leader.

                The two Stormtroopers guarding the door stood at attention and saluted when they saw Ren and General Hux approaching. “He’s ready for you, sir,” one of them reported to Ren, and input the code to clear the way into a small console built into the wall. The door slid open with a hydraulic hiss, Ren exhaled to collect himself, and the two men strode into the commanding presence of a 25 foot tall holographic representation of the man who completely dominated the First Order.

                Ren strode to the center of the room with finality, General Hux following at his heels. The two men reached the center dais and bowed curtly to their leader. Snoke was sitting back in his chair, his elbow propped up on the arm rest and his cheek resting against his hand. His icy blue eyes followed the two men intently.

                “General Hux, thank you for delivering Master Ren to me,” came the deep, resounding drawl of the Supreme Leader. Hux inclined his head in assent.

                “Although,” Snoke continued, “I find myself wondering if he is deserving of the title _Master_ these days.”

                A ringing silence followed this declaration, in which Ren swore he heard Hux attempt to stifle a snicker. Ren decided he would, in fact, choke the man. Just after the meeting.

                Ren kept his jaw clenched and, through his mask, kept his eyes at the foot of the hologram. He measured his words carefully. He began slowly.

                “Sir, I—”

                “Spare me your excuses,” Snoke spat. He leaned down towards Ren, sharp eyes piercing into the young apprentice even through the veil of his mask. “Since you are obviously incapable of following simple orders and of overpowering a mere girl untrained in the ways of the Force, I have ordered the _Finalizer_ back to the Unknown Regions to regroup and consider our options moving forward. You will continue your training until I decide you are ready to continue your mission.”

                The Supreme Leader sat back on his throne. “It was my intention to survey this training myself, but I have been…” Snoke paused a moment, drumming his fingertips absentmindedly on the stone arm rest. “Delayed,” he finished pointedly. “General Hux will report directly to me with your progress instead.”

                At this point, Snoke casually turned his head to his right. “Another apprentice of mine will facilitate this training,” he continued. As if summoned, a shadow suddenly dislodged itself from the murky depths of the cavernous room just behind Snoke, its movement the only way the form was now discernible. Leisurely footsteps resounded against the stone base from which Snoke’s hologram projected, and slowly the outline of a woman became visible in the dim light. Snoke outstretched his hand towards the men. “Kira Kilvaari: your client, Kylo Ren, and the commanding officer of the _Finalizer_ , General Hux.” He leaned forward in his chair again, as if intensely interested in what would happen following the introduction.

                The first word that came to Ren’s mind as Kilvaari’s form became illuminated was _severity_. Her platinum blonde hair, wrapped tightly behind her in a French braid, her narrowed, icy blue eyes, and pale, alabaster skin were in sharp contrast with the jet black leather she wore tightly cut to her muscular frame, one piece from her neck to her wrists and all the way down her long legs. Her arms were crossed against her chest as she stalked slowly towards Ren, framing the picture of her bosom so pointedly presented by a deep cut in her uniform plunging into her cleavage. Her presence was instantly announced by the subtle rap of her knee-high leather heels against the hard floor, and hugging the sumptuous curve of her hips was a black belt with a silver buckle, at which her lightsaber was securely holstered. Her thin brows were furrowed in contemplation as she assessed Kylo Ren, slowly making a circle around him. He defiantly stared her down, refusing to be made felt like hunted prey.

                “A _mere girl_ is to attempt to train me?” Ren said incredulously, mocking Snoke’s words from earlier.

                “This is a woman, Kylo Ren,” Snoke corrected calmly.

                “A woman I have never heard of and have no reason to trust,” Ren spat in Kilvaari’s direction. She ignored him, and, having apparently made up her mind about him, relaxed her expression and stood just behind Ren, clasping her hands behind her back and fixing her gaze towards Snoke.

                A ghost of a smirk appeared on the bony features of the Supreme Leader. “Perhaps there is a reason I have kept her secret,” he suggested smugly. He readjusted himself in his chair, apparently disappointed there was no altercation. “Kira will help you further expand, enhance, and focus your powers, Master Ren,” he continued.

                Ren gestured behind him. “And just how will _this woman_ help me do that, Supreme Leader?” His voice dripped with venom.

                To his right, and for the second time, General Hux was heard to chuckle under his breath. Ren shot him a dangerous glare, which Hux could feel even beyond Ren’s mask. The general kept his eyes facing forward.

                “You shall find that out in the morning, my young apprentice,” Snoke alluded sinisterly. “You will report to room 1721 at the first hour of the morning cycle with General Hux and meet her there.”

                “An interrogation chamber?” Ren asked incredulously. General Hux smirked quietly this time.

                “Room 1721,” Snoke repeated precisely. Ren did not reply.

                Snoke turned his attention to Hux. “I expect daily reports on his progress, General,” he said. Hux nodded in assent.

                “Get some rest, Master Ren,” Snoke advised his apprentice. “You may find you will need it.” With that, Snoke’s hologram dissipated.

                Without saying a word or sparing either of the two men a second glance, Kira Kilvaari about-faced and strode confidently out of the room, her hands still clasped behind her back. Both men watched her leave, and not just to enjoy the view. General Hux eventually turned towards Ren and gave him a deliberate look from underneath arched eyebrows. He left the room without comment, leaving Ren behind closed doors to ruminate in his situation.

                The _Finalizer_ ’s engineers had a sudden influx of replace orders for singed equipment in the comm room the next day.


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for a bit of mild torture. I don't think it's really that bad, but just in case.

                Kylo Ren was late to his first training session. He made it a point; this woman would know she was beneath him and that she was only a tool for him to use in order to further his own goals. It was a trifling matter to him that General Hux had apparently been aware of this Kilvaari woman’s reputation before he had been. Supreme Leader Snoke’s ominous insinuation—“ _Perhaps there is a reason I have kept her secret_ ”—ghosted across his consciousness for a fleeting moment before it was entirely dismissed as nonsense.

                The young apprentice halted in the doorway of the appropriate interrogation chamber, nothing announcing his presence except for the slow wheeze of the automatic door. He found Kira Kilvaari facing the room’s only entrance, standing next to an interrogation-style chair with her hands clasped behind her back, the same scrutinizing look she wore the previous day displayed on her face. General Hux had already arrived as well, and was pacing impatiently with his arms crossed over his chest. Hux rounded on Ren as soon as he had crossed the threshold.

                “Did you get lost? Were you incapable of remembering four simple numbers in series?” Hux barked. He gestured his hands accusingly at Ren.

                Kylo did not spare the man a glance. “I was delayed with more important matters,” he lied flatly, keeping his gaze turned towards the chair. He had used many rooms like this in the past, and although he noticed the restraints and tools of torture he was accustomed to were not present in this particular chamber, it still made him relatively uneasy that this was his chosen training ground.

                General Hux huffed in disgust and threw his arms in the air in a manner of exaggerated defeat, turning and walking to a position in the back of the room, leaning against the wall so that he may observe.

                Kira remained impassive. “Please remove your helmet,” she requested placidly.

                Kylo Ren’s gaze shifted to the woman. His fists clenched at his sides. His mask was a part of his identity; it was what reminded everyone around him that he was their superior, and not only the successor to Darth Vader, but his direct descendant. The impertinence of this woman’s request made Ren’s temper flare from under the depths of his hooded cloak.

                “No,” he said defiantly.

                Kira exhaled through her nose and closed her eyes a moment as if to collect her patience. Her blue eyes seemed brighter and more intense when she opened them and took two steps towards the apprentice.

                “Master Ren,” she asked, her voice restrained. “Please remove your helmet.”

                Kylo challenged her by closing the distance between them. She was tall, for a woman, but he was still easily able to stare menacingly down at her.

                “No,” was his aggressive reply.

                In what seemed like a single, fluid motion, Kira lunged at Ren. She stepped towards him with her left foot, left arm grasping his shoulder, her right palm shooting straight forward to wrap around the chin of his face mask; Kylo leaned backwards in an instinctual evasion of her hand suddenly appearing in his field of vision, and she took advantage of his unsteady balance by stepping with her right leg, placing her heel right below Kylo’s knee. She kicked there, knocking the man completely off his feet. She used the leverage of her hand on his shoulder to create momentum so that his feet came completely off the ground as he fell flat on his back; then, grasping his arm tightly still, she placed the toe and heel of her boot squarely on his neck.

                “Master Ren,” she repeated in that same, deceptively impassive tone, “your mask.”

                For a solid five seconds or so, Kylo’s mind could not even comprehend what had happened. He had been fully prepared for an attack of some kind, but his senses were completely heightened for a lightsaber attack, or some use of the Force, but not… _this_. He could do nothing for a moment but let the wind that had been knocked out of him by his solid impact with the floor out in a low groan. Kira replied by increasing the pressure ever so slightly on his wind pipe.

                Kylo slowly reached up under his hood with his unrestrained arm and initiated the gears to remove the helmet. Satisfied, Kira released her hold on him and stepped away so Ren could compose himself. She once again clasped her hands behind her back, pretending not to notice General Hux’s slack-jawed amazement at what he had just witnessed.

                Making his way to his feet and brushing off his cloak, Ren finished removing his helmet, ensuring that every vengeful thought he was having about Kira was displayed clearly on his face.

                “Have a seat, please,” Kira said, gesturing towards the chair in the center of the room.

                “And if I don’t, what are you going to do, _woman_?” Ren spat the word like an insult. “Attempt to catch me off guard again with your fancy trick?”

                “If that is what it takes, Master Ren,” Kira explained calmly as one would to a child. “However, as you have been informed, I am only here to help you improve the strength of your powers. I cannot force you to accept my help, but I may be able to show you some things that affirm I am capable of training you. In the instance of your—” she tilted her head as she sought the appropriate word— “ _unfortunate_ refusal of my request, you were angry, and that is good, but you were not focused. This lack of focus led you to the assumption that you had the upper hand. I showed you that you were wrong. You often assume a great many things, Kylo Ren, and it often turns out poorly for you. I am here to teach you to _stop assuming_.”

                “Now,” she outstretched her hand towards the chair once more. “Do you still assume I have nothing to teach you?”

                Ren deliberated for a moment. Supreme Leader Snoke had ordered this in place of his own instruction, so he must obviously foresee some value in Ren submitting to the woman’s teaching. Even if Ren despised her, he supposed he would be foolish to pass up an opportunity to increase his abilities. But if she turned out to be useless—if for one second he doubted her ability to help him—he would kill the woman himself. Kylo smirked to himself as he sat himself in his chair, placing the helmet on the floor beside him.

                Kira swiveled a nearby stool closer to Ren’s chair. She maneuvered to sit directly in front of him, her long braid swinging forward to hang over her shoulder. “You claim to be accomplished in the art of interrogation with the force?” she inquired.

                Ren scoffed as if the answer was obvious.

                “Then today’s exercise should be easy enough for you,” Kira continued. “I have been trained to barricade my mind against that sort of power. A powerful force user like yourself should easily be able to push past them.”

                “What is the point of this if you know I will succeed?” Ren’s tone was angry and impatient.

                “I must have a place to start,” Kira replied calmly. She placed her elbows on her knees and folded her hands together, resting her chin on them and closing her eyes. “Whenever you are ready,” she indicated to Ren.

                Kylo exhaled impatiently, adjusting himself in the chair to sit forward slightly. He reached within himself to feel the familiar embrace of the Force, and then gathered the will to reach outwards towards the woman in front of him. He felt his power brush over her mind ever so slightly for an instant, and the last thing he saw before his vision went white were her icy, cold eyes opening to look quizzically at him.

                Ren cried out in anguish and doubled over in pain, clutching his side. The fresh wound he had received from the Wookie’s weapon had been tended to in the medical bay as soon as he was brought on board, but now it felt as though the healed skin was being slowly ripped apart from the inside. He could feel an icy hot pressure begin to build beneath his rib cage, slowly gathering intensity with each passing second. It was as if a molten razor inside his abdominal cavity was slowly circling against the barrier of his skin.

                General Hux lept forward from his position on the back wall, but a cold look from Kira stopped him dead in his tracks. Kylo Ren continued to writhe and howl in the chair, unable to understand what was happening. Then, as suddenly as it had started, the pain was gone.

                “What … the _hell_ … was that?” Ren gasped, his voice ragged.

                “Master Ren, you seem to have forgotten your objective,” Kira replied naively.

                Kylo checked his robes frantically for blood, but found none. With the pain subsided, however, he did suddenly notice a subtle stretch in the weave of the Force. His angry gaze shot to Kira.

                “You!” he exclaimed incredulously, moving to his feet. “You son of a---”

                “I simply provided a tool,” Kira cut him off, standing and holding up a hand to signal Ren to stand down. “I thought perhaps a sensation you became recently familiar with would be sufficient for you to channel into your power, but once again, you were lacking focus.”

                “That was your idea of _helping_ me?” Ren growled.

                “I _am_ here to help you, Master Ren,” Kira smiled sweetly, in sharp sarcastic defiance to Ren’s temper.

                Kylo’s entire body tensed in restraint, his temper screaming at him to destroy this impudent woman. “That’s the plan, then? You torture me while I probe your mind?”

                “I provide you with the raw emotion of pain, which you attempt to channel to overpower me,” Kira corrected.

                Ren’s jaw muscles flexed. Her patronizing tone was not lost on him. Fury screamed from every pore in his body, and he ached to choke the life out of her for embarrassing him a second time. He fought with his temper, though, because he begrudgingly knew she was right; that pain could be a valuable asset to build the strength of his power. He pushed back the self-preserving part of himself that protested against reliving the sensations she thrust upon him.

                He shot her a last, angry glare, and returned to the chair. His trainer smiled, smoothed her hair with her palms to check the integrity of her French braid, and returned to her position on the stool in front of him.

                “Again, whenever you are ready,” she said.

                Kylo was prepared this time. He did not gently reach towards her with the Force; he bull-rushed her with his full strength. The second he felt himself hit her mental barricade, the pain was back. Ren gripped the arm rests of the chair in defiance, locking his gaze with Kira’s and refusing to break it. He mentally pulled at the sensation at his side, trying to draw it deep within himself and fuse it to his pull of the Force stretching towards her, but the harder he pulled, it seemed the pain pushed back. The feeling of his flesh rending travelled inwards, expanding so that Ren found it difficult to breathe. Still, he fought. He could feel his power rushing at Kira and suddenly stopping, like a tidal wave meeting an endlessly tall bulwark. All the while, the pain in his side was ripping through him like fire in a dry forest. He mentally grappled with the agony, trying to force it to aide him, trying to force it to obey. Beads of perspiration were beginning to appear on his forehead. He explored her mental block with the force, trying to comprehend it; trying to find a weakness. It was unrelenting. The pain was unyielding. His jaw was clenched, trying to withstand it, trying to ignore the fact that this woman, inflicting so much misery upon him, was sitting placidly looking on as if nothing was happening, appearing unaffected in the slightest degree, with her pretty eyes soft but shadowed by a sinister knowledge of the inexorable agony she was imposing while his insides churned with smoldering, serrated, splintered glass that would not obey his command to stop and suddenly…

                … Suddenly Kylo Ren let out a deep, piercing roar of defeat and flew from the chair, redirecting his force powers to rip the infernal object from its bolts on the ground and send it reeling through the air. General Hux had to leap out of the way for fear of being crushed by it. Ren scooped up his helmet and stormed out of the room.

                Kira’s eyes followed him out and never left the spot where he disappeared.

                After a moment, Hux stepped forward. “Well, that was bracing,” he offered in the uncomfortable silence.

                “Hmm,” Kira responded absentmindedly, without looking at him. Then, as if breaking from her train of thought, she turned and bowed her head towards Hux in farewell. “I shall see you in the morning, General.”

                Hux scoffed. “You think he’ll be back after all that?”

                “Of course,” Kira responded. “He needs to know he has what it takes to defeat me.”


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mild torture here again, just a warning.

                Kylo Ren was not late to his second training session; nor his third, fourth, or fifth. Every day for several weeks, he showed up to the same interrogation room at the first hour of the morning cycle—whatever objects he happened to destroy in fits of rage replaced in the night—and every day he would find Kira Kilvaari patiently waiting for him and General Hux strutting restlessly in the back of the room. Every day, Ren would remove his helmet, Kira would place herself in front of him, she would murmur “whenever you are ready” and their mental battle would begin.

                Every day, Kylo Ren would fail to break her barriers.

                But it was exactly as Kira had said, even if Ren hadn’t heard her say it; he needed to know he had the ability to defeat her. It _enraged_ him that another woman could defeat him at his force specialty like this, especially after all the successful interrogations he’d had in the past. He’d made a name for himself in the First Order as Supreme Leader Snoke’s final solution to extracting information from a prisoner. At least, that’s what he’d been told… this Kilvaari woman, if asked, could deal excruciating damage to anyone around her in any way she liked. Ren had to learn this the hard way.

                The first few lessons, Kira maintained the same torment she had inflicted at their first meeting: that of the initial impact of Chewbacca’s blaster in Ren’s side. After he failed to utilize the unfortunately familiar sensation to strengthen his power, Kira began to experiment with alternate points of agony at different intensity levels to encourage Ren to try harder. However, the apprentice noticed with vexed chagrin, she never once lost her temper with him, showed any signs of impatience, or pushed him past his pain threshold. Kylo Ren would lay awake at night in his quarters and wonder if this was a weakness on her part or made her very insidiously cunning, as if she were holding herself back from what she was truly capable of exacting upon him—or anyone, for that matter.

\-------

                As was typical for him these days, Kylo Ren found himself gripping the arms of the interrogation chair, knuckles white from exertion, his forehead wet with perspiration, and his gaze defiantly locked on to the woman in front of him. She was currently sending shocks up his back in waves; shocks that would originate at the base of his spine and launch outward along major nerves to his extremities. It made it difficult for him to move—his back was stiff as a board and he was leaning awkwardly to one side, all his weight on his hip—but still he fought her. He struggled internally, his jaw clenched, reaching inside himself to grab the pain and meld it with his projection of the force towards her… but still it eluded him. It seemed like it had been eluding him for hours, and he was struggling to fight his impatient temper.

                He was not the only one.

                “How many days are we going to have to sit through this with no results?” General Hux finally broke the silence in the room. Kira halted her ministrations for the interruption. “While you two gaze lovingly into one another’s eyes, I am seeing no progress being made at all.” He strode forward to stand next to Ren, peering down at him pretentiously. “Despite my obvious enjoyment of watching Ren squirm in pain, I am getting rather irritated with this unchanging repetition.” The General shifted his gaze to Kira. “Your methods are not working. Ren is obviously too weak to benefit from your training.”

                Kylo made an attempt to gather himself and attack Hux at the insult, but Kira raised her hand to stop him. Kylo slumped back into the chair, breathing hard from his recent struggles, and the elegant woman stood from her stool to face the general, capitalizing on their height difference to look down at him.

                “General Hux,” she said placidly, voice smooth as silk, “I would advise you to leave at this time.”

                Hux’s eyes widened. His gaze shot back and forth from the woman to the apprentice, as if unsure who to blame for the impertinent suggestion. “I have been placed here under the authority of—”

                “Supreme Leader Snoke, yes, I recall,” Kira continued. “Currently you are proving to be no more than a distraction for Master Ren and a hindrance for me. As you have stated yourself, you cannot see progress in my pupil, whereas I can. I feel this puts me in a better position to report to the Supreme Leader.”

                Hux’s mouth opened and closed, trying to form an argument.

                “So I must ask you again,” Kira maintained, voice growing colder, “to please leave.”

                Hux stared incredulously at the woman, but her eyes grew dark with menacing intent the longer he lingered. Whether from fear or the resolve to report her, he quickly turned tail and left the room.

                Kira rolled her shoulders and neck as if relieving tension there. “Now that’s been taken care of…” She turned back towards Kylo. “Master Ren, please take some time to catch your breath and compose yourself. If you’d like, we can still continue.”

                Kylo released a darkly amused, breathy chuckle. “You know, you have got to be the most considerate torturer I have ever come across.”

                Kira paused in her return to the stool. She considered her words before resuming her seat. “I have a job, Master Ren, but I am not a monster.”

                “Ah, I see,” Kylo feigned mirth as he readjusted himself in the chair. “You’re not a monster… you just train them.”

                Kira had no response to this, but Ren did see her eyes fall to the floor and her rouge lips tighten into a thin line. When they returned to his moments later, there was no casual warning of resumption; she hit him square in the chest with such intense pain it physically pushed him backwards. His ribcage felt compressed and he struggled to regain his breath as what felt like molten iron spread from a single point in the center of his chest. It tore through veins and was spilling inside his torso, melting and congealing with everything it touched. A panicked thought crossed his mind that this was not simple manipulation of nerves; she was literally making his blood boil. She was going to kill him. And the only was he would survive is to break her.

                Kylo Ren didn’t lash out at her with the force at first, as he had in the past. Whatever was inside him that she had put there, he had to get out or he would die. Eyes shut tight, he willed the force to move in his body, figuratively scooping his dripping, smelted insides from the bottom near his hips, gathering it upwards and focusing all the pain it was causing, and he strenuously thrust it from himself, leaning forward in the chair and simultaneously releasing a roar of protest in her direction.

                For a split second, his eyes were open long enough to see an unfamiliar look of surprise on her face…

                …And then he found himself inside her mind.

                _Small, frail hands tightly clasping a photo of a smiling old man in an unfamiliar mechanic’s uniform, a small blonde haired little girl clutched tight in his arms._

_A voice—deep, wizened, strong, comforting. “I’ll be back real soon, Kitten. Don’t you fret.”_

_Larger hands, still frail, opening a front door to find men in officer’s uniforms staring down at her. “We’re sorry,” they all said with fake condolence. “This belongs to you.” A simple, golden ring laying in a flat palm._

_A private quarters—familiar, somewhere on the officer’s deck of the_ Finalizer _— and tears falling on a crumpled, worn picture of a smiling old man in a mechanic’s uniform. A drawer opened by the side of the bed, a secret compartment opened, and the picture replaced next to a simple gold ring, now tarnished with age._

                Kylo Ren withdrew. He laughed triumphantly, focusing his vision on the absolutely stunned face of his trainer, now standing and backing away in bewilderment.

                “Victory,” he proclaimed with a satisfied smile.

                “But you…” she stammered. “They usually only crack… They never… My most cherished…” A hand raised to clutch her heart as if it was in pain. Wide eyes travelled from the door to the man in the chair several times before her before she fled from the room.

                Kylo watched her go. His eyes never left the spot she disappeared, not even long after the hydraulic door hissed shut behind her.


End file.
